White privilege

Jiro said:
in case you didn't notice, you were responding to souggy's post, not shel's. My response is based on your response to souggy's post.
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Er, my response was to Shel's response on America as the most prejudiced in the world and that Souggy responded to my response to Shel's saying that we also descriminate and I responded to Souggy to name a country that didn't discriminate against their immigrants. So, it all goes back to Shel's response by challenging her notion that we are the most prejudiced country in the world against immigrants.

:)

Also, "most prejudiced" is a loaded one and needs further clarification. Otherwise it's just an opionion with no real factual basis to it. Yes, we have people who are prejudiced and do discriminate. We are not unique in this when compared to other countries who routinely and blatantly do far worse.
 
kokonut said:
Er, my response was to Shel's response on America as the most prejudiced in the world and that Souggy responded to my response to Shel's saying that we also descriminate and I responded to Souggy to name a country that didn't discriminate against their immigrants. So, it all goes back to Shel's response by challenging her notion that we are the most prejudiced country in the world against immigrants.

:)

Also, "most prejudiced" is a loaded one and needs further clarification. Otherwise it's just an opionion with no real factual basis to it. Yes, we have people who are prejudiced and do discriminate. We are not unique in this when compared to other countries who routinely and blatantly do far worse.
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U missed the key word in my comment.
 
souggy said:
At least Jiro gets what I am going at.

I don't have much patience for people that choose to polarize themselves.
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I just signed in and saw all these posts after my last comment. Not worthy to continue it especially when a critical component was overlooked.
 
shel90 said:
I just signed in and saw all these posts after my last comment. Not worthy to continue it especially when a critical component was overlooked.
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Yeah... let the people who are grateful that English is their first language play with themselves. ;)
 
rockdrummer said:
Yeah right after those immagrants stole it from the native Americans. You are right, this is the melting pot of the world and I personally believe that prejudice does exist but it is not as bad as it use to be. I don't have a prejudice bone in my body. In my view, we are all of one race. The human race. I personally don't see all of this "white male privilege" in my life or even in my line of work.
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Mexico stole lands from Native Americans, too. And before that they successfully wiped out the Aztec culture in their Spanish colonization of the Americas (central). Did you know that Mexico City is on the site of the ruined former Aztec capital?
 
shel90 said:
You are right..even black people do it themselves. My hubby's family calls him the "white" one in their family because he doesnt act black. If black people are doing it, then the full blame shouldnt be on white people only for this behavior. It makes me uncomfortable when they make these kinds of comments.
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You are absolutely right. We divide ourselves not just by race, but by differences within the race.

We see it with the deaf, too. Those that emphasize their HOH (not deaf) because that makes them closer to the majority hearing. They see themselves as more hearing than deaf, and that is related to the idea that even a little bit of hearing is better than no hearing because it is more "normal".
 
Mrs Bucket said:
I must admit this is where I really appreciate my blindness as I do have a hard time differentiating colours. I am not able to differentiate red, pink, orange as they look the same to me. The same goes as green and blue.

The concept is similar to people, I look at them all as humans and wish the same was applied to other people that discriminates against others.
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I never thought about it that way, but you have an excellent point. Not being able to see those surface characteristics we use to make judgement against others could very well be an advantage.
 
jillio said:
You are absolutely right. We divide ourselves not just by race, but by differences within the race.

We see it with the deaf, too. Those that emphasize their HOH (not deaf) because that makes them closer to the majority hearing. They see themselves as more hearing than deaf, and that is related to the idea that even a little bit of hearing is better than no hearing because it is more "normal".
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Would the lightness of skin be a good example? I remember hearing about passing the paper bag test.

As for HOH or deaf status, I refer myself to HOH to hearing strangers as the word Deaf seems to scare them. With everyone else, I say i'm Deaf.
 
VamPyroX said:
Yeah. There are not a lot of Trekkies out there.

Come to think of it, ever notice that it's usually the geek/nerd/dork minority that's more open-minded and friendly with other minorities than with the non-geek/nerd/dork minority?

Such examples would be comic book conventions, anime conventions, sci-fi conventions, Star Trek conventions, etc.
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You are right about the increased tolerance. It is probably a side effect of having been discriminated against themselves for being different.
 
kokonut said:
I guess we'll wait until the day when Japan has a black president, too? Or Mexico get their first Anglo-saxon president as well? Or Germany get their first Jewish president.

People are going a wee bit too far on this self-flaggelating business.

America is prejudice in a lot ways but she is also the premiere melting pot of the world. A nation built by immigrants ever since the United States became a nation.
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The point of a "melting pot" is to make everyone the same. What we are discussing is preserving one's culture, and not being treated differently because of it. Assimilation is not always the best principle. Assimilation demands that people all become just alike; it forces them to abandon those parts of themselves that are not the same as the majority and communicates the message that unless you are white, middle class, and Protestant, there is something wrong with you.
 
VamPyroX said:
Ever see that episode on Saturday Night Live with Eddie Murphy?

Even though that episode was exaggerated, it did make a good point with how society is at times.

Eddie Murphy wanted to see if there was such thing as "white privileges". So, he had himself made a white man (with make-up, a "white man's outfit", etc). He got on a bus and there were black people on it. When the black people got off, all the white people stood up and they started to party like it was something they always did when only white people were around. He went to a store and a saw a black man pay for a newspaper. When he went to pay for his, the clerk said he could keep it.
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I remember that one.
 
kokonut said:
Mexico stole lands from Native Americans, too. And before that they successfully wiped out the Aztec culture in their Spanish colonization of the Americas (central). Did you know that Mexico City is on the site of the ruined former Aztec capital?
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That has virtually nothing to do with the concept of white privilege as experienced in this day and time in this country, nor any other country. Please stick to the topic.
 
jillio said:
The point of a "melting pot" is to make everyone the same. What we are discussing is preserving one's culture, and not being treated differently because of it. Assimilation is not always the best principle. Assimilation demands that people all become just alike; it forces them to abandon those parts of themselves that are not the same as the majority and communicates the message that unless you are white, middle class, and Protestant, there is something wrong with you.
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Let change that to pasty white-- of English or Scottish ancestry
 
deafskeptic said:
Would the lightness of skin be a good example? I remember hearing about passing the paper bag test.

As for HOH or deaf status, I refer myself to HOH to hearing strangers as the word Deaf seems to scare them. With everyone else, I say i'm Deaf.
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Absolutely. Lightness of skin and hair texture (typically phrased as "good hair" when it has less courseness) is used to discriminate in group.
Of course, it all translates stright back to being closer to white with lighter skin and less course hair. Why do people develop the thinking that it is better to be closer to white? Because they see whites getting the advantage of white privilege on a daily basis. Horrible message to give our children.
 
In college in one of my Soc. classes we watched a video....it had different scenes, comparing reactions of various people to a <both people here wearing same "business casual" type of clothing> white man and to an African-American man in shopping. Same locations, same day - guy perceived as white goes into place to buy shoes; people are all over trying to help and they greet him immediately and they smile at him, etc. The African-American man goes into same store and he is ignored as far as help goes but staff start to watch him and follow him around. But no one greets him or offers to help him. Another scene - car dealership. Black man goes in and is quoted a price; white man goes in and is quoted a lower price on same vehicle by same salesperson.

The country now known as U.S. had many many nations before the arrival of the Europeans.

It is part of white privilege NOT to see it
 
dogmom said:
In college in one of my Soc. classes we watched a video....it had different scenes, comparing reactions of various people to a <both people here wearing same "business casual" type of clothing> white man and to an African-American man in shopping. Same locations, same day - guy perceived as white goes into place to buy shoes; people are all over trying to help and they greet him immediately and they smile at him, etc. The African-American man goes into same store and he is ignored as far as help goes but staff start to watch him and follow him around. But no one greets him or offers to help him. Another scene - car dealership. Black man goes in and is quoted a price; white man goes in and is quoted a lower price on same vehicle by same salesperson.

The country now known as U.S. had many many nations before the arrival of the Europeans.

It is part of white privilege NOT to see it
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Yes, there have been all kinds of demonstrations of white privilege. Research abounds on the topic. Many, many experiments have been conducted in the social psychology field, and the sociology field. It is not difficult to find an example.

That is a very good point you made with the bolded. It is, indeed, an advantage of white privilege to deny its existence.
 
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